I read a lot of books, mostly non-fiction and technical in both hardcopy and digital formats. Although I get through most of them, there are some I don’t even try to finish, and a few become favorites that I keep for future reading and reference. I recently read a book entitled Re-Use Your CAD: The ModelCHECK Handbook by Rosemary Astheimer. When I saw Handbook in the title, I thought it would be another dry reference book, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was much more than that — it’s a good learning and reference resource.

The book’s author, Rosemary L. Astheimer, is an application engineer for Action Engineering, as well as a Continuing Lecturer for the Polytechnic Institute at Purdue University. She received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and her Masters of Software Engineering from Brandeis University. Before joining the faculty in 2014, Ms. Astheimer spent over 15 years working in the CAD software industry. She began her career in software support, transitioned into a pre-sales application engineer focusing on business development of new products and was most recently a product manager.

What Is ModelCHECK?

ModelCHECK evaluates Creo (formerly Pro/ENGINEER) parts, assemblies, and drawings to ensure that they adhere to a company’s modeling standards and best practices. If an exception to conventions is detected, users are notified of the inconsistency, given tools to identify the problem within the solid model, and can often make a correction automatically from ModelCHECK. It assists design team engineers by letting them create models that can be reused in downstream applications. The key thought here being reuse.

I write lists. On paper. With a pen. Writing helps me remember, while typing with my thumbs on an itty bitty screen does not. Then I struggle to coexist between a paper and paperless world. But Livescribe solves that. It’s a Smartpen that houses an infrared camera, ARM processor, Bluetooth Smart chipset, flash memory and lithium ion battery all work together to bring your notes to life on your tablet or smartphone. Android and iOS friendly.

I’m kind of anti single-serve coffee makers that use pods or capsules because of the unrecyclable plastic waste, but Nespresso pods are made of aluminum, not plastic, so these pods at least have a chance of being recycled. Aside my environmental rant, the drool-worth feature is the ability for this machine to simulate a true espresso/coffee crema via 7,000rpm of centrifugal force. Also note that it uses laser technology to ID each coffee blend, so you don’t need to manually change settings.

So my first question is “where are the other 5??” But seriously, if you are concerned about getting along with your family during the holidays, this is a great way to derail the drama…play video games. Otherwise, you’ll end up…talking. Ugh.

I have one of these, but this is a sore spot for me. Someone in our house put mine in the dishwasher, and it’s kind of ruined now. It is still yet to be determined whether it was myself or my husband … or one of our twin 2-year olds. Other than it not being dishwasher-safe, this is amazing and iconic. Everyone needs one of these!

I go to the microwave about 4 times a day to reheat my coffee, because I take 3 hours to drink it. The YETI tumbler is a great gift to maintain beverage temperature. YETI uses SOLIDWORKS and SOLIDWORKS Simulation to design and validate their superior products. Yasssssss!

This is great if she’s a closet geek. Not me. I’m geeky all out in the open. This smartwatch looks like a real watch, but has all the features like built-in activity tracking, music control, etc. Fossil also uses SOLIDWORKS to design their products.